!! 1972: Bush demoted from F-102 to flight SIMULATOR!

[grasswire]

"....he abruptly shifted his emphasis in February and March 1972 from his assigned F-102A fighter jet to a two-seat T-33 training jet, from which he had graduated several years earlier, and was put back onto a flight simulator. The logs also show that on two occasions he required multiple attempts to land a one-seat fighter and a fighter simulator. This after Bush had already logged more than 200 hours in the one-seat F-102A."

From the excellent new article in The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040927&s=baker

[grasswire]

1. gack...

...I see there's another thread on this topic, but this headline really needs screaming across DU.

[Gloria]

2. This should be blasted to the network and cable whores...

Wonder if Rather will put this on???

[Protected]

3. Could you run Microsoft Flight Simulator

on a 1972 IBM Executive D typewriter?

[Spazito]

4. ROFL!

*

[Philostopher]

5. Pilots have to fly a certain number of hours on the sim.

It's so they can get an idea of how they're performing. They train on certain procedures and do 'quizzes' on instruments in the simulators, do random 'spot checks' on certain flight procedures and scenarios. I know -- I knew someone who actually did maintenance on the sims, back when that was still a military tech job (it's now a civilian contract).

That being said, the T-33 demotion is something worth making a remark about. The only time pilots went from their plane of training back to the trainer plane, IIRC, was when they showed behavioral or performance degradations -- which is to say, if it was thought they were having problems of some kind or other handling the big jets. The trainer jets also were used as punishment for behavior not seen as fitting to a military officer, such as being reckless with the planes, barnstorming, not keeping proper records, etc.

On edit: it was the AF pilot's version of being sent to the galley to peel potatoes in Beetle Bailey, if you will.

[grasswire]

10. another article...

....said that in April he required multiple passes to land his planes, even the trainer.

SOMETHING HAPPENED.

[Lex]

6. He was wasted and they didn't wanted him to crash

and kill himself or someone else, so they made him start using the flight simulator again.

Seems logical to me.

[Sparkly]

7. What courage! He could have been killed

falling off his chair.

[Myrina]

8. Something seriously dangerous and bad must have happened

to fuckface to make him that much more of an inept scaredy cat than he already was ... wonder if he tried to fly a real jet stoned or drunk, and came close to crashing it or killing someone ??

:shrug:

[Gregorian]

21. Someone else speculated the same thing.

A pilot on this forum. I'm guessing you're right. Furthermore, pilots never stop flying. Bush was never a pilot. You can tell by just looking at him. He's bullshit, through and through.

You know, this would make the most hilarious movie, if it weren't so damned tragic. I mean, the chimp gets put in a plane. Then the chimp gets to play governor. Then chimp starts a war. HiLarious. Zany hijinx. On film. In real life, we have a serious problem. I'm probably not going to get over this administration. If this Idiot gets hit by lightening, maybe. But that would still not account for the remainder of those who planned this meeting of the maligned minds. So sad and maddening.

Sorry, Myrina. Didn't mean to rave on your post. :)

[A_Possum]

9. And he's proud of this

He's busted back to the trainer and flight simulator, and then he quits flying.

That's really something he should be embarrassed about, not proud of.

[salinen]

11. Just having him in a jet

jeopardized the crew of the U.S.S Lincoln. Missionary Accomplished.

[ochazuke]

12. Just tonight on the evening news...

I saw some guy who I think was in the audience at Bush's speech to the National Guard association in Nevada.

He was saying that shrub should be admired just for learning to fly the F-102. Forget about the other stuff, I guess he was saying.

Now, they haven't even got that.

[frylock]

15. that bar they keep lowering must be in a trench by this stage

[A_Possum]

19. Bwahaha

Can we still see his head?

[yardwork]

30. Think about who was in the audience

Active service military (who are not allowed to say anything that is not completely supportive of the Commander in Chief) and long-time Republicans who signed an oath of loyalty to get in.

Contrast chimp's appearances at these faux-events with Kerry's televised visit to a nursing home yesterday. Many of the retirees in the audience wore Bush stickers. They frowned and listened skeptically to Kerry - but they listened! And he talked to them. He invited "those of you who support President Bush, and those who are undecided" to ask him questions!

In one corner, a little man dressed up as the president talking to a pre-selected crowd of loyalists. In the other corner, a warrior who goes to the enemy camps and talks them into joining his campaign!

Who do I want leading America in tough times?

[Czolgosz]

13. Apparently, Bush misspoke

When asked how he learned about the 9-11 tragedy, Bush said that while waiting to go into Booker Elementary School to read "My Pet Goat", he saw the plane fly into the World Trade Center and thought to himself, "I used to fly planes myself and I thought…Now there’s one really bad pilot." Bad enough that this statement is a clear lie because Bush could not have seen the first plane fly into the tower because footage of the first plane hitting the tower wasn't aired until the second day and the second plane hadn't hit the tower when Bush went into his My Pet Goat mode. On top of that, Bush apparently should have said "I used to fly flight simulators myself and I thought…Now there’s one pilot nearly as bad as I am."

[frylock]

14. Bush really flying in a Cessna 172 in 1976:

NOT LONG AFTER Reisner's delicate trip to Midland (summer 1976), Bush banged on the door of Susie and Don Evans on an otherwise placid Sunday afternoon and suggested to Don that they head out to the airport and spend a few bucks for a spin over the desiccated Permian Basin in a single-engine Cessna. Susie Evans, who had gone to elementary school with Bush, was a longtime Midland presence, and when she had been dating her future husband in Houston, she had frequently stayed at the Bush house. She had moved back to Midland, and after she had heard that Bush was back in town, she and her husband had frequently invited him over.

Her husband Don Evans... Willard... was a short, fastidious, narrow-faced oilman in his early thirties who was poised to assume control of the Tom Brown Company, one of the legendary older names in the West Texas patch. Bush had begun spending more time at the Evanses' apartment in the Windsor Courts, drinking cocktails with them and leaving his laundry for Susie to do. Bush liked Evans's politics, he liked that they were about the same age and that both of them had recent MBAs. He liked the fact that Evans's old man had landed on the beach at Normandy during World War II.

Evans said he'd love to go flying. At the airport he watched Bush stare at the controls, at the panel, and he realized that Bush-though not admitting it-had no idea how to fly the thing properly. After finally figuring out how to launch the plane, Bush pushed the Cessna hard down the runway. Evans screamed, "Give it some gas!" The Cessna's warning system was blinking and crackling. Bush tried to lift his craft fast, almost as if he were piloting a jet back in the Texas Air National Guard. The plane wobbled into the air, and the unsubtle maneuvering threatened to shove it into a stall. Now the rented plane was rattling in the sky over Midland

The endless petrochemical complexes, all the aluminum and steel and smoke stacks that pockmark the Permian Basin, were spiking up just below the aircraft. Bush nervously turned to Evans, put his hand on his knee and blurted in his self-mocking West Texas way, "Okay, Evvie, I’ve got it under control."

After more seemingly endless moments, he somehow got control of the plane again. He aimed the aircraft down, and the landing was as shaky and brutal as the takeoff. The plane careened off the runway and onto the desert. Evans sighed in relief. Then an unbelieving Evans braced himself as Bush suddenly and unexpectedly spun the plane and bounced back along the runway. Evans stared at Bush. He could see the fear and panic flooding his face. Bush pressed on. Evans had no idea why Bush wanted to go again. The plane wobbled uncertainly back into the West Texas skies, and Bush turned to Evans. "Hey," said Bush airily, as if he had just had an original, amusing idea, "let's fly around Midland."

The men began cracking up. Bush brought the Cessna back to the airport. It was the last time he flew a plane. Evans would be one of the three people at Bush's side in almost every public venture for the twenty-three years.

http://www.seanet.com/~johnco/bush102.htm

[Gregorian]

18. George Bush- Kamikaze president.

He is a complete idiot.
I flew my father's Bonanza half way across the United States, when I was eleven. Even I could have done a better job than Bush. I'm not kidding. It's the arrogance that gets these shitheads in trouble. I've watched people crash. My dad has watched people crash. And we've been in situations just like the one described in that article, where other people did their damnest to crash. And it's always the same story- some arrogant idiot who wasn't paying attention.
And so it goes, the very same man is attempting to pilot America into the ground.

[yardwork]

31. Very interesting!

Also this line in the above article....

"You crashed a jet while you were in the National Guard because you were drunk."

He spread his hands. "That's easy," he said. "Where's the plane?" Game over. He spun around and headed off.

[hatrack]

16. " . . . and I thought to myself, 'That's one really bad pilot.'"

No need for further comment on the latest revelations regarding the Simian Dauphin.

[girl gone mad]

17. The level of cover-up..

that has gone on behind the scenes in this matter leads me to believe that he must have done something pretty serious.

Others have speculated that he was arrasted for possession in late 1972.

[A_Possum]

20. I agree

You'd think these guys would learn that if they just come clean, it blows over.

But it may be that in this case, Bush himself has a big personal investment in the fantasy that he's a military man. Sort of like he thinks clearing brush makes him a Texan.

[neonplaque]

22. 'If your thing is gone and you wanna ride on; cocaine.'n/t

[AirAmFan]

23. 'Were you ever high when you were flying the fighter jet?" UNANSWERED

QUESTION!

'Were you ever high when you were flying the fighter jet?'

The late David Bloom of NBC (died while 'embedded' in Iraq) asked Dubya this direct question but got no answer, according to Kitty Kelley. From an excerpt from 'The Family' at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5989684/

"The Bush team expected Bloom's question to explode the never confirmed rumors that George had been grounded by the Guard in 1972 because he had cocaine in his system and knew he would be unable to pass his required physical. Bloom did not get a satisfactory answer to his question and was not permitted to follow up."

[DeepModem Mom]

24. kick

[grasswire]

25. one last kick...

...for those who haven't seen this article.

[Clinton Crusader]

26. kick

:kick:

[Karenina]

27. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

*cod-piece included in price of admission.

[crickets]

28. They didn't trust * with nukes

Bush's partial history: Stringent military screening program may explain gaps on president's record
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking-news-story.asp?submitDate=200431401040

The White House documents do show that Bush's military job description, called an Air Force Specialty Code, or AFSC, was listed as ‘‘1125D, pilot, fighter interceptor.”

Bush's pilot code was among those covered by Air Force Regulation 35-99, a previously undisclosed document recently obtained by The Spokesman-Review. Regulation 35-99 contains an extensive explanation of the Human Reliability Program.

Human reliability regulations were used to screen military personnel for their mental, physical and emotional fitness before granting them access to nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
...

Isham said there is a ‘‘good likelihood” HRP regulations were either applied or about to be applied against Bush and that is why he stopped flying on April 16, 1972.

__________________

And as an interesting aside, I ran across this while looking for a source for the above:

Citizens For Honest Fighter Pilots May Have Answer To AWOL Questions
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/08/con04335.html

The source provides an answer to our questions put forth to Bush, that have so far gone unanswered, which are: (1) where was Bush while he was AWOL for 5 months? (2) why did he fail to show up for his annual flight physical? and (3) why don't any of his fellow guardsmen remember him at the Alabama base.
...

Bush was 'acting inappropriately' on the base in Texas, then was picked up on a DUI for alcohol and marijuana. In order to 'create a break in the record,' he was shipped off to Alabama for rehab. That is why he never showed up for his Guard duty - he was in reahb. That also refutes the spin that he had gone there to work on a congressional campaign .

There's a whole slew of articles here:
http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/bush-awol.htm

[Supersedeas]

29. SHIFTED HIS EMPHASIS - code word for he was a FAILURE

[greenbriar]

32. Failure as in

every other thing he has ever done!

I can NOT believe any one still thinks this man is good.



even my mom a devout baptist is starting to see through his ways (with a little help from me her rebel daughter)

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

33. Simulated pilot, simulated TANG medals, simulated Saddam statue rally

simulated political ads using actors, simulated turkey, simulated ranch buildings on Crawford Ranch, simulated Prez